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This episode is sponsored by Ello. When your day moves fast between getting everyone out the door, meal prepping, and trying to find a small moment for yourself, the products you use should make things easier, not harder. That's where Ello comes in. Ello makes thoughtfully designed water bottles, tumblers and glass food storage containers that fit right into your routine. Their water bottles are easy to refill, easy to carry, and leak proof, so you can toss them in your bag without second guessing it. They're designed to keep up with your busy day and make staying hydrated feel a little more doable. And when it comes to leftovers or meal prepping, their glass food storage containers make it simple to save dinner for tomorrow or take meals on the go with secure lids that help keep everything where it should be and not in the bottom of your bag, visit elloproducts.com and use code TRYLO20 for 20% off your first purchase. That's E L L O P R O-U C T S.com, code TRYLO20 this episode is sponsored by Smile Generation. There are some parts of taking care of ourselves that are easy to ignore because they're not urgent yet, and the dentist can be one of them. If nothing hurts, it can feel like something to deal with later. That later has a way of turning necessary things into urgent things. And that's exactly what I'm trying to avoid. Smile Generation helps patients understand the mouth Body connection What's happening in your mouth doesn't stay in your mouth. It can affect your heart, your brain and your overall health. So regular dental exams and screenings aren't just about clean teeth. They're one small way to care for your whole self before something bigger asks for your attention. Smile Generation is a community of trusted experts focused on prevention, education and modern patient focused care. To learn more about the connection between oral health and Overall Health, visit SmileGeneration.com Genius that's SmileGeneration.com Genius to learn more about the mouth body connection and find a trusted provider near you. Hey there, you're listening to the Lazy Genius Podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi. This show is not about hacking the system to find more time or hacking your energy to get more done. Hustling to be the best or to make the most out of every opportunity is exhausting and unsustainable. So here we do things differently. On this show we value contentment, compassion and living. In our season, we favor small steps over big systems. Here we're lazy geniuses. Being a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. And I am so glad that you are here today's episode 473 how to Deal with a Messy House All Summer Long if your summer looks different than the rest of the year because you have kids at home and everything is more chaotic, or your rhythms are a little different because of summer activities and travel and, I don't know, just reading More than tidying, this episode is for you. I want you to leave this episode with two things. First, I want you to feel better about the mess that you do have. And second, I want you to have some strategies to help you deal with the mess if you want to. I think it's good to have perspectives that reframe our mess, because mess isn't necessarily going away. But that doesn't mean that you have to live in squalor, especially not if you don't want to. So we'll take care of both of those things today. After that, we will have a little extra Something where I share an update on my album project. I shared an update back in April, so it feels like a good time to, you know, give it another peek. Plus, I've listened to a couple of albums recently that I cannot stop listening to. Just so stinking good and great listens for the summer too. So I want to share those with you. As always, we'll celebrate the lazy genius of the week with a wild idea for cleaning up art messes, and we'll finish up with a mini pep talk for when you're already tired of a long season. Before we get into that, I want to remind you of the difference between two of my books that people love to read during the summer and before school starts back up again. I know it just ended, but, you know, so that isn't for a while, but you might be someone who like, can barely get in a couple of pages of a book a day, especially nonfiction. And double especially if you have, like, tiny kids who make the idea of summer reading a joke. Still, I have two books that are great reads to help with managing the chaos of life, and I think one is great in the summer and the other is better in, like August, even into September. They're both great whenever. But if you've been wondering what book of mine will help you be more of a lazy genius in the specific way that you need, here is the quick rundown. So I think over the summer, if you want an easy read that you can pick up and put down over and over again and still apply it right away, I would read The Lazy Genius Way it is my first book. It is my best selling book. It is super simple and helpful. It is the book that teaches the 13 lazy genius principles so that you can start to lazy genius your life, your own way. Principles like decide once, start small, let people in, be kind to yourself, ask the magic question, and if my math is correct, 8 more it's like having a great pantry in your kitchen full of ingredients that are really dependable. And then when you need to make a certain meal or create a specific solution, in the case of this metaphor, you have like a lot of great ingredients to choose from. Now sometimes you need just one principle. Decide once is going to solve it for you. Other times you might combine two or three to make a situation in your life feel a little easier. So that book released in 2020, I wrote it in 2018 and 2019, which is wild because my kids at that time were 2, 6 and 8. That is way different than 10, 14 and 16. So that is a great book for the summer. It feels light and helpful and an easy read to pick up and put down. All right, then in like August or September, read the Plan. The Plan is my book on time management, specifically our lazy genius version of time management, which does not focus on optimization and greatness as the goal, but instead it focuses on contentment and wholeness. As a person, we're not trying to manufacture and plan a perfect life. We're just trying to live. So the first half of that book of the Plan is really all you need to focus on right now if you want, just the basics. So that first half is where I teach the Plan Pyramid, which is a framework that puts traditional planning into like a kinder context. Okay, now the back half of the book, it will. It's great. It will help you think through like planning a week and planning a project and all kinds of planning things. But really you just need to have a grasp on the Plan Pyramid on that acronym Plan, Prepare, Live, Adjust and notice. Not everyone is gifted at preparation or traditional planning, nor do you need to be. In fact, lazy Genius planning is built on an equal relationship among preparation, noticing what's working, and then adjusting as you go. Some of you are great at noticing people and energies and vibes and what's working. Some of you are really great at adjusting on the fly and pivoting when something goes awry. Some of you are good at preparing and putting the whole plan in its place. But you need all three skill sets to be a lazy genius planner, to be someone who like wants to live every day, not just like optimize and produce every day. That feels like a great book to read. Going into a busy fall season, even just the first few chapters are a huge, huge help. So that is the difference between those two books and even when you might want to read them. So again, you might want to read the lazy genius way this summer. Dip in and out while you dip in and out of the kiddie pool with your children. And then when you're getting closer to the fall, read the first few chapters of the plan to either get a refresher or for the first time, a new understanding of the plan Pyramid. Okay, now before we get into how to deal with a messy house all summer long, let's take a quick break to hear from our sponsors, which makes the show free for you to listen to. Before we do, this is your quick reminder that we have a podcast recap email that goes out every other Friday. It's called Latest Lazy Listens. It summarizes the episode. You don't have to take notes, which is so great, especially on an episode like this that does have like some steps to it. So if you would like to get that recap email, head to the lazygeniuscollective.com listens this episode is sponsored by Feeding America. Every act of change begins with a neighbor, with someone saying, we take care of each other. Here in food banks and food pantries, neighbors pack fresh food and dignity into every box, moving food from farms to families through Feeding America's nationwide network. So when that box reaches a home, it carries more than food. It carries a promise that together we can end hunger. Feeding America, led by neighbors, Give now to end hunger@feedingamerica.org this episode is sponsored by Daily Look. Have you noticed that in the summer your go to outfit tends to go to a lot? A graduation, a dinner out with friends, that end of the school year thing that you forgot was outside. I love a repeat outfit, truly. But sometimes it's nice to have a few fresh options that still feel like you without sacrificing your weekend at the mall. Dailylook is the number one highest rated premium personal styling service for women. You take a style quiz, then a real personal stylist, not an algorithm, curates a box based on your body shape preferences and actual life. You try everything on at home, keep what you love and send back the rest with free shipping both ways. I especially love that you get the same stylist every time because getting dressed is personal and it helps when someone learns what actually works for you. Elevate your style by signing up@dailylook.com today. Take your style quiz@dailylook.com and get 50% off your first styling fee for with the code lazygenius. That's dailylook.com code lazygenius. All right, let's get into how to deal with a messy house all summer long. I'm going to give you three things to remember to help your mindset. Then I'll share one strategy, one that will help you keep order in the places that matter. Then we'll do a quick rundown of some summer house rules that might help keep some chaos at bay. All right, so we're going to do mindset first. Why? Because how you think impacts what you do. And you don't need to be doing anything extra or unimportant in the category of housework when you could be doing things that are extra and unimportant in better categories this summer, like reading and play. All right, so mindset number one, you will never have a completely tidy house. That's it. That's the end. You will never have a completely tidy house, let alone a clean one. It's so hard. It's so hard, especially in the summer, to have every room free of clutter and mess because people are there for longer. Everybody is eating and playing and taking off socks, and you just can't expect a tidy house all the time. I mean, you can. You can expect it, but when you do, you're gonna get mad because unmet expectations are like a whole thing. If you expect a decently tidy house most of the time you will be frustrated and you will take that frustration and you'll turn it into a system that will fail in three days. So don't do it. Just change the expectation. Expect to have a messy home. Expect to if you expect it. Anything cleaner than like, that normal baseline of chaos is very exciting. It's ice cream on a Tuesday. So just expect a messier than usual house. That's number one. Number two, reframe mess as life. Not life is a mess, but mess is life. When the kitchen is full of dishes, it means people are eating. Eating is life. And also that's great when the living room is covered in toys. Mess is life. It's playing and fun and having a good time at home without screens, mind you, something you're probably trying to have less of anyway. Don't resent the mess you get from no screens. It's life. It's wonderful, curious, playful life. If the couch is covered in a tangle of blankets, and pillows like mine is right now. See that mess as life. It's a consequence or of kids watching something together and being cozy at home. Don't see laundry as just a mess. It's life. It's kids playing outside and getting dirty and having a great time. Now, listen, I'm not trying to be like Pollyanna over here, even though I do have a lot of optimism in my bones. But so many of the things that bother you don't have to as much when you think about them differently. Mess is in the eye of the beholder. So behold differently, expect the mess, like I said in number one, and then see that mess as evidence of life. You probably want a warm home that your people love to be in. Well, guess what? You're looking at the evidence of that. It doesn't make cleaning up go away, but it sure does make it easier. Mess is life. That's number two. And the third mindset is that this is a season. You have been through a messy house before. You will do it again. It will not kill you. It will eventually end. Now, you might even have a decently tidy house in a couple of days when you and your crew do, like a quick family tidy together. It could last several hours. Who knows? But the chaos of a messy house, it can lead to a mournful, desperate Anne Shirley vibe, where your thoughts are like, how tragic this season is. Like, if you look around and it's just the worst of the worst of a messy summer, your season is gonna feel pretty grim. There's just, like, so much stuff everywhere. But, like, that is not the moment to mourn the season. You can. I have to. But I just want you to not stay there. Don't let yourself stay there for very long. In the depths of despair about summer, remember that everything is a season, and we're gonna live in this one. Right now, we can't change the season itself, but we can change how we view it. It is where we are. So let's honor it the best that we can. It'll be over eventually, and one of these days, it'll be over forever. And that will be sad. Like, one of these days, summer with kids is gonna be gone. Now, listen, I'm not gonna tell you to, like, treasure every moment because that is too much pressure. But you could treasure a handful of them, or at least, like, look at them. Look at some of the moments, take a deep breath, spot the good that's here now in this messy summer, and smile at a couple of the moments. This is a season, and there's some good stuff here if you stop being annoyed long enough to notice them. So those are the three mindsets to remember that will help you mentally manage and a messy house all summer long. Again, accept that you'll never have a tidy house all at once. And if you do, it will not last very long at all. Mess is life and this is a season. So take some deep breaths, internalize those. All right, next comes a piece of strategy to help you tidy what matters. Okay, it's pretty simple, comes in two parts. I want you to name which room and which category of stuff you want to keep the most tidy the most often. So which room is the best room to give your tidying energy to every day, both for your own mental health and then for your family's ability to function. Since you cannot expect to have a tidy house all at once, what room, what single room would you prefer to be tidy before you go to bed? Which room gets the attention? When you only have room to attend to one room, you get to decide. But that decision, that's going to help you this summer, you're going to attend to the room that needs it the most. Now, it's not the room that needs it the most because it's the messiest, it's the room that needs it the most for the health and safety of your family and your brain. So, like, if I had to choose, it would be the kitchen. I'd rather keep the kitchen mostly clean, especially when everybody goes to bed like before that, than any other. Than any other room, it's the kitchen. If the living room is messy, whatever, that feels easier to tidy quickly anyway. Bedrooms, you cannot walk. You cannot barely see the floor of my daughter's room right now. Granted, she is in the middle of a room, clean out. But good gracious, it is an obstacle course of the highest proportion. But I don't care because guess what? My kitchen's clean. That's what I care about. The rest of it doesn't really matter. So once you decide what that is for, you decide the room that gets your first attention and maybe your only attention that day. It just makes it easier to let the rest go. So pick your room. Second, pick your category. This is for all rooms. This transcends rooms. But what category of items makes you the craziest and would be best to tend to first? So mine is dirty socks. I hate dirty socks on the floor. I think it's gross. I don't want to touch them. And my people, all of them, every single one of them, they leave dirty Socks in every room all the time. Especially in the summer during the school year when they come in the house and they take their shoes off and then they put their socks, dirty socks in the. In the sock bucket, like the napkin bucket that I've talked about before. But in the summertime, that doesn't happen as much. And there are dirty socks from my husband and all three of my children everywhere. I can deal with just about anything being out and, like, messing things up. It's like we. We have solutions for this. I'm a resilient person, but dirty socks is where I become a person. I do not like. I do not like. So figure out what that category is for you. It might be dirty dishes. So if the dishes in the house stay in a rhythm, even if the rest of the kitchen and house, like, isn't tidy or clean, you're gonna feel better. Or maybe it's pool stuff. Maybe you're a pool family. And like, the wet towels and the missing sunscreen and the flip flops everywhere, all of that just makes you wanna your category that you're going to put your best energy into. It could be snack wrappers, dirty tissues, ew, toys, shoes, discarded mail, or, like, the stack of cardboard boxes from, you know, online orders or whatever. So look at your mess and notice what category makes you the most anxious or frustrated or angry or, like, motivated to pick it up out of spite. Now, we don't like doing things out of spite as a rule, but it is helpful here in identifying what category you might want to focus on. Like, what do you angrily pick up the most? That is probably your category. So pick your room. Pick your category. Mine is the kitchen and dirty socks. What is yours? All right, so let's do just like a quick little recap before we move on to this next thing. So I want you to remember our three mindsets, okay? Expect the house to be a mess, see mess as life, and live in the season. Okay? That's the deep breath for your soul. Now, you've also named the room and the mess category that you want to put your best energy into. Great. All right, so next I want you to tend to those two things, that room and that category. With those mindsets in mind, I want you to attend to those one step at a time. No big systems, friends. One step at a time. My favorite tool to get you started is a house rule set. House rules is one of the 13 lazy genius principles from the Lazy Genius Way. And those house rules are how you keep chaos from getting started. If you can target where your particular category of mess starts, and you put a house rule there to keep that mess from picking up steam, you will keep the mess that matters at bay. Now, house rules take time, especially if you have more people on board, that eventually you will start to feel a rhythm in an area that used to feel super challenging. Now, because you need to start small, which is another lazy genius principle, don't make seven house rules and then begin. If you have to work hard to remember all of your house rules, you have too many house rules. You started with too many, so start with just one. Try one for a week or two, see how it works. Let it find a tiny rhythm, and then start with another one. Now, I know you're thinking that, like, summer is so short and you're gonna run out of time, you're gonna run out of weeks to do all these things that you wanna make rules about, but here's my counsel on that. If you create seven house rules right now, I can almost guarantee by the time you get to the end of the summer, you may may have two, may maybe have two of the seven. The bigger you start, the smaller your number will probably get. But if you flip it, if you start with one this week and then you add another every two weeks of the summer, after eight weeks, you're gonna have like four or five house rules that are probably working fairly well. So starting small, it actually gets you more because you can slowly let things grow rather than like building something shoddy in a moment of spite. So take your time. Plus, every time you start small, you are proving to yourself that you can. Every small house rule you add every couple of weeks or even months. That is a practice of being a lazy genius. You're not rushing to fix it. You're just paying attention to your most important problem right now and slowly trying to solve it one step at a time. Okay, so back to a messy house. During the summer, I want you to think about a house rule, One for either the room that you want to keep clean or. Or the category you want to keep from taking over your house. So pick whichever one you think will be the easiest to implement first and just start. Okay? So you might tell your family that this summer it matters that the dirty socks stay off the floor because they make you feel sick to your stomach. And it also makes laundry harder since people are likely to run out of socks more quickly if they're not actually in the laundry and getting washed. So this summer, everyone, we're going to have a house rule where if there are socks on the ground. Anyone in the family is allowed to shout socks. And everyone has to come. The sock culprit has to get the socks, but everyone has to come. When socks are screened, that can make some people in the group accountable. And they're like watching for socks because, like, maybe one sibling does not want to be interrupted by another kid's dirty socks. So they're gonna be like, hey, dude, your socks are in the living room. Grab em before mom screams socks. And we all have to run. You know, now listen, that's really silly. But hey, if your most annoying thing is dirty socks and your children don't like to be interrupted, like, do whatever you can to make sure the dirty socks don't accumulate without anyone else noticing. Like make it worth it to them. Where it's a rule that you have to come running and maybe like if they don't come running, they have to come and get the socks even if they're not theirs and nobody wants to touch other people's dirty socks. So gross. Again, silly. But single house rule and just start and see. Now the same is true for a house rule in the room that matters, right? That's the category that matters. This is the room that matters. If the most important room is the bathroom, because you only have one and it needs to be tidy and ready to use every day, then make it a house rule that nothing gets left out. Like everything in that bathroom has to be put away when you're done. Not everywhere in the house, just in the bathroom. So if you notice that a kid left their toothbrush on the side of the sink after they brush their teeth, instead of putting the toothbrush back in the toothbrush holder, go get the kid. Say, hey bud, remember house rule to put away bathroom stuff. And I saw that your toothbrush is still out, so can you take care of that please? Like be kind and direct. Eventually, kids will be annoyed at having to go back over and over again. And they'll probably start following the house rule without needing to be reminded because they're tired of being having to go back. You'll have to put a little more effort in at the top to help them see. But stay kind and be patient. They'll come around one house rule at a time. I grabbed some house rule ideas that you all have shared over the years to help you think about the possibilities for your own home as you kind of brainstorm what a house rule could be for your category or for your room. So I'm just gonna run through a few of these and hopefully it'll get some of your own creative ideas going. Almost the juices. And that's not okay. All right, so here is one from a Kirkman about bathrooms. She says, this is brilliant, you guys. I can't even deal. I lock one bathroom. This is during the summer. I lock one bathroom. We have two in our house. One my boys use and one my husband and I use. Like all stay at home moms, I have more to clean in the summer and less time to do it. And then there are guests. So many guests. So during the summer, I lock the boys bathroom and I make them use ours. This way, I have only one bathroom to clean, and I always have a bathroom that is clean and ready when guests arrive. No more running to scrub the toilet or scrape away toothpaste gunk. When I hear a car coming up the driveway this way, I have less to clean, and I enjoy unexpected guests a lot more. I mean, lock in a room. That is some brilliant, genius energy right there. House rule is one bathroom during the summer. Don't use the locked bathroom. That's your house rule. That's great. Now, is there going to be a transition because the kids are using your bathroom? Yes, of course there will be that. You're choosing what matters more. A Kirkman would rather have a locked, always clean bathroom and only one other bathroom to clean, even though that that one bathroom is probably going to be dirtier because it's four people instead of two. But that's a worthwhile choice because of what matters the most. Changes everything when you name that. Love it. Okay, next one. Amber says one suction cup hook per person in the showers for all the wet swimsuits that need to drip dry. It keeps them off my floors. All right, so if your category is dripping swimsuits, and you're like, holy moly. All the swimsuits. I can't. I can't. And they're driving you crazy. This is a great idea. This is a house rule. Swimsuits on your hook, right? You can just do that. Keep that going, and everything else is going to feel easier because you're tending to to the most annoying category. All right, here's one from Kate. To help manage our large family's messy house all summer, I've created a summer schedule that includes a blitz tidy. So before we go out and enjoy our day at the lake or adventuring, everyone tidies the house until it's put back together, usually 10 minutes. That way we aren't coming back to a big mess. So this is great and works well for Kate. And since she has a lot of hands to help tidy. You can also simplify this by choosing your most important room that it's not the whole house, Right. But before you leave for an activity, you quickly tidy that room, the one that matters the most. That's the house rule. Now, if you usually run behind and you don't always have time for the tidy or you feel like it's being like crammed into too small a space because you're just trying to get out the door, well, first you could just build it in, like start getting ready sooner so you have time for the tidy or you tidy before you start getting ready to leave. You know that's like the first thing you do. Or if you know that you're gonna leave later in the day. Like, you can just tidy the most important room anytime. And you know that when you leave, it's going to be tidy like two minutes. You guys are gonna do wonders no matter when you do them. All right, here is a tip from Bookbabe. We got a hand me down vacuum Robot. Now I say auto is coming, so all the things need to get off the floor. The kids named the vacuum based on the button on top that says auto mode. The kids clean up without a fight because it's not me telling them to clean. It's me helping them save their toys and craft supplies from Auto. So we used to have a robot vacuum. His name was Sucker Buddy and he was the best. He was the best. But then we got like a new chair and a rug that had like a really high pile and it just made Sucker Buddy. Sucker Buddy did not function anymore and so we had to put Sucker Buddy away. But robot vacuums are so fun for kids. Like name the vacuum stick googly eyes on it and yes, make it a house rule that when Auto or Sucker Buddy or whatever your name is is coming, it's time to get the stuff off the floor. It's like a game almost. The response is immediate. It's so helpful. That is a great house rule. I love this one from Bethany. Especially if your category is dishes or your room is the kitchen. We eat breakfast outside. It gets us out the door to play for a few hours before it is too hot. And then we've all burned off some good energy before the heat drives us in. Bonus, cleaning up breakfast for a 10 month old and two preschoolers is much easier out of doors. Isn't that great? House rule is breakfast outside done. Like it checks a lot of boxes with just one rule. All right, here's another dish related One from Mara. I always wanted to avoid dirty dishes in the summer, but instead of buying tons of expensive paper plates and going through them every, like, three days, I grabbed some food fry baskets from the dollar store, and I found somewhere to buy a giant pack of restaurant basket liners. I even cut them in half so that they go longer. And for 90% of the snacks and meals that my kids eat, the paper liners keep the baskets from needing to be washed at all. And then I just throw away the paper and restack the baskets. That is a terrific house rule. Eat your food in a fry basket all summer. And then maybe you have a rule of, like, empty your fry basket when you're done. Or if you have children who eat a lot of ketchup on things and the way that they empty their fry basket tends to, like, get the ketchup on the basket because they make the house rule, like, teach them how to throw the paper away. You know, like, the house rule is you dump it. Like, you flip it over and dump it, or you pick it up by the corners or, you know, like that. That is, there is a way to throw away the food inside or the paper inside the fry basket so that you don't get ketchup on your fry basket or barbecue sauce or whatever it is. So that's. You might start with meals in the fry basket. That's your first house rule. The second one is, like, empty it when you're done so that the kids can get used to that. And then when you start to see how they do that, then you might add another one a couple weeks later where you're like, this is how we empty the fry baskets. House rule is, you know, whatever. So just add on this and think about how easy, how much easier kitchen cleanup or dishes are once you slowly implement a house rule like that. And think about how much easier it makes all the other chores because you have tended well to the thing that matters the most. And then finally, the room that you might want to tend to is actually your schedule. Let's just, like, pretend that maybe your biggest mess happens in your calendar. It's not really your room. It's the organization of summertime. So Katie shared this idea for summer. Monday through Wednesday, I schedule appointments, doctor appointments, vet car maintenance, all those things. And then I leave Thursday and Friday and the weekend days open for play dates, day trips on the fly, long weekend trips. So when my kids ask for a sleepover or a day trip somewhere and I'm not near my paper calendar because I'm analog, I Say, let's look at Thursday or Friday, because I know they're going to be open. I feel like it's given me a less chaotic summer schedule, which my kids don't even notice, but I love. So that's really great. That's a house rule that says, like, responsible things, and you can even add, like, chores, whatever it is. But, like, the responsible days for the most part are Monday through Wednesday, and all the fun is going to be Thursday through Sunday. Like, that's. That's a house rule for your schedule. That's so great. So I hope some of these house rules have just given you ideas. You don't need to, like, follow them, but they can, you know, spark some ideas for you for what matters the most for you now. There are just so many ideas in the world. All right? So don't get hung up on finding the perfect one. You don't need the perfect house rule. Just try one in the room that matters the most or the mess that matters the most. It does not have to be optimized. It does not have to be the best one ever. Just pick one and see what happens. All right, so to recap, you're going to remember three things. You're going to expect the mess and not expect everything to be tidy at one time. It is unlikely, so just let it go. Next, you're going to see the mess as evidence of life. Try that tiny reframe to be kinder about your space and the people who make the mess. And then third, you're going to live in your season. This season will end, so just be here now. Find the good stay present here and enjoy it. Okay? That's your mindset then. You're gonna pick one category and one room that will get the majority of your tidying attention. All right? If that room is good, the other rooms feel better. If that category is good, the other categories feel better. So name those so you can invest your limited time and energy in the best place and then set you and your family up well by choosing one house rule to help that category or that room work even better. Keep the chaos from starting with your house rule. Make it as small as you can and only start with one. You can add more over time, and that is how to deal with a messy house all summer long. This episode is sponsored by notability. If you've ever sat through a fast paced lecture or a long study session, you know how hard it is to actually listen when while trying to write everything down before the professor changes the slide. It's so easy to lose track of the core information and even harder to make sense of your messy handwriting when you're rushed. That's why Notability makes such a practical gift for the students and educators in your life. Notability is an all in one note taking and learning app designed to help people capture ideas, stay organized, and make more use of their notes. They work works for school and studying, meetings, work notes, PDFs, and personal organization. You can handwrite or type, annotate PDFs, record and transcribe audio and come back to what matters when you need it. 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Right now, listeners can get up to $200 off square hardware when you sign up at square.com go lazygenius that's s q u a r e dot com go lazygenius get started with Square and build a setup that works the way you do. All right, it's time for a little extra something. I have an album project update for you. As a reminder, I'm trying to listen to a ton of full albums from start to finish in 2026. My initial goal was something like 300 albums split between ones I've never heard before and others that I definitely have. And as I have said before, I think that number will prove to be too high that I have still listened to way more full length albums in the first half of the year than I ever have in years past. Plus all the new stuff. There's so much new stuff so it's been so fun. At our last update a couple of months ago I was up to 65 total albums for the year. So it was like first quarter 65 and today I'm at 91 which is 26 additional albums since that last update. I think I thought originally that I could do like, four or five albums a week, but it's shaping up to be closer to three, which is still great. So last time I told you about two albums I was loving then Creature of Habit by Courtney Barnett and Pumpkin by Georgie Parker. I have listened to both again since then, especially Creature of Habit. It is just so windows down and it has zero language, so it's great for car rides with kids that I have four new albums to share with you today that will be on my regular rotation after 2026, for sure. One of which I have listened to, I think, maybe six times already. It's crazy. Also, I cannot play clips, which breaks my heart. Like, I would love to give you the vibe of these, but it's like a legal thing, you know, so we can't do it. But just look them up. Look them up to get your vibe. Okay, before I share the four, I do have an honorable mention. Go, go look this up. Just for the experiment of it. This album is called the Stone Roses by the band the Stone Roses. This album messes with your mind. It was released in 1989, so you'd think it'd be like, an 80s sound or at least making its way into the 90s with, like, big synthy pop vibes or something. Y', all, this album feels like it came out in 202005 in the best way. It's, like, groundbreaking. I do not understand how this music was made in 1989. It's like 1960s rock meets Weezer. It is a great album for one. It's really great. That is also just so bizarre to listen to, like, knowing it came out in the 80s in 1989. Like, I even played it for my oldest kid and a couple of his high school friends on a. On a drive home from school, and I was like, hey, listen to this. When do you think this album came out? Based on the sound? And they were all like, early 2000s, which was impressive that they know what that sounds like, but they were right. It sounds early 2000s, but it came out in 1999. It's crazy. So that's the Stone Roses. Go listen to the Stone Roses by the Stone Roses. Okay, here. Here are my actual four albums to recommend. The first one is not for tiny ears, since there is language, but it's the album Group, probably project by Hilo Jack. So hi Lo Jack is a group. It's like a collaborative group made up of three existing artists, right? That. That Got together to make this really genre bending album. So I came across them because one of those artists is Clyde Lawrence from the band Lawrence who I love. They're the ones who sing what you want. Which is like the best like energy making song ever. Oh my goodness, it's so good. Anyway, this album is really fun and surprising. You've got Clyde who sounds like Michael McDonald. Then you have this indie rock guy and there's also a rapper. So it's this really cool again, genre bending collaboration. Great vibes. Love it Again does have language. So watch it with the children. That that's group project by Hilo Jack. I've listened several times. I will listen again. Number two, Music Speaks Louder than Words by Candy Staton. Okay, this came out in 1977. This lady is. She's been nominated for like several Grammys. Some of the songs are really familiar. Her voice is spectacular. It's like very funk soul, a little disco. It's such a good time. And if you like musicianship, if you like the actual musicality of music, like you turn your head at a really great lick or a cool horn arrangement, or you make like a, like a happy grimace when a guitar player like plays something super cool, you will love this album. It is so excellent and really fun for summer. So again, that's Music Speaks Louder than Words by Candy Staton. S T A T O N Number three is such a sleeper. The artist is Dominique Adams. And y', all, she has like 3,000 listeners on Spotify. That is not a well known artist and I do not understand. Her album called To Keep To Keep. It reminds me of Jacob Collier but like smoother. Her voice is. I mean it is hot. Knife through butter. The style is so interesting and soothing and cool. There's also a lightness to her music that just feels like the best soundtrack to a rom com. It's just so good. I don't understand why more people are not listening to her. I don't even know how I found her. I think it just. The album got served to me on Spotify. But go listen to the album to Keep by Dominique Adams. Holy Actual Moly. And then finally the album that I listened to half a dozen times. Easy, Easy is Big Flower, like Go Bloom by Henry Jameson. This is the perfect album for being in the car with kids or at home but wanting your own music. It's the easiest listening. It's like incredibly complex though and musically interesting. His voice is great. He's got some great collabs on there. Including there's a song with Jacob Collier, if you like Ben Howard. Some of his songs remind me a little bit of Ben Howard's music. Even his voice a little bit. Like, very rich and atmospheric, but also very fun and cool. It's. It's just so good. So in my album project spreadsheet, which I will eventually share at some point, like probably at the end of the project, so I have two ratings for each album. One for how listenable something is, and then another that I call heart rate, which is how much I personally love it. Because, you know, like, some things you love, but they're not easy listens, just like any day or some things are super easy to listen to, but they don't. They don't grab you, right? So this album got a 9 out of 10 in both categories. I don't think I have any 10 out of tens yet, which is maybe just too hard to name a perfect album. But, like, this could essentially be a 10 out of 10. I don't know. But it's in both categories. I love it so much. And it's also so easy and fun to listen to, which is why I've listened to it so many times. So again, the title Big Flower Light Go Bloom. Big Flower Light Go Bloom by Henry Jameson. And that is today's a little extra something. And now for this week's Lazy Genius of the Week. This week we have Julia, who writes, my lazy Genius of the week idea is something I use at work, but can definitely use at home too, especially if you have kids. I'm an art teacher for young students, and I don't have a lot of time in between classes to clean up messy projects. So I ordered puppy training pads and I placed them on the tables to protect them and catch any liquid spills, paint mess, et cetera. It saves me so much time, and usually I don't even have to do more than throw away the pad and move on. Well, listen, we have never had a pee pad tip before, so today is a big day. This is pretty brilliant and also legit funny, depending on the ages of the kids that you're using this for. Like, that's a lot of comedy to do your art on a puppy pee pad, but I can totally see a parent having a pack of these for certain kinds of projects. I that allow you to say yes more quickly because the cleanup is not as daunting as it could be. So listen, there's a first time for everything, and I'm happy today is the first time for a pee pad tip. So thank you so much for sharing Julia. And congratulations on being the lazy genius of the week. And now for a mini pep talk for when you're already tired of a long season. So the other day, it was just, like, the second or third day that the boys were home for the summer, and I was like, oh, my goodness, when is it gonna be September? It's like I was in the very early days, like, barely. Barely plural days of a messier than usual house of being interrupted by kids who always have a question. Weirdly, Sam's question has evolved from like, can I have a snack? That's what it used to be to can I take the car? So, like, that's not weird at all. But I felt it. I felt the mounting frustration. And then I. I realized I was, like, just two days into the summer. It was, like, mildly devastating and also, like, pretty funny that sometimes you're at the start of a long season that's not summer or not funny. You're in a place that could be way more frustrating than messy kids. You're dealing with a struggling marriage or a tough relationship with a kid or a job that you have to just, like, tough out for another year before you can leave. Or you can be at the start of the summer already dreaming of a different kind of day. So there's not a solution here, but I do think an important thing to remember is to be where you are and look for the good that is here now. Thinking about how much longer this hard season will last is devastating. It's discouraging. There's no good news, really. And then when you look back at how things once were, while comforting maybe for, like, a little bit, that doesn't offer much either, because it's making you wish for something you don't have. Contentment is hard in a challenging season, especially when you have, like, a lot longer to go. But if you and I can look for a bit of good today, if we can focus on the small things today, if we can rest today, if we can connect with someone today, it makes today a little better and tomorrow not quite as daunting. So be where you are. Even if you're at the beginning. Look for the good that's here now. Stay connected to the small things that bring you joy. And if there aren't any, find some. Listen to music, call a friend, hug your kid, bring coffee to a neighbor. Eat watermelon. Like, be where you are. It helps even when you are in the beginning of a really long season. And that is a mini pep talk for when you're already tired of a long season. If this episode was helpful to you or if you've been looking for a way to support the show, we would absolutely love it if you would share this with a friend. You can also leave a kind review on Apple Podcasts. Every single mention matters. It does. It helps more people learn about the show and learn how to be a lazy genius. Which we want more of that in the world. So thank you so much for your support. This podcast is part of the Odyssey Family and the Office Ladies Network. This episode the episode is hosted by me, Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Special thanks to Leah Jarvis for weekly production. If you'd like a podcast recap every other week, be sure to sign up for the latest Lazy Listens email that goes out every other Friday. Head to thelazygeniuscollective.com listens to get it. Thanks y' all for listening. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that matter. Don't. I'm Kendra and I'll see you next week. The Right window treatments change everything. Your sleep, your privacy, the way every room looks and feels. @blinds.com We've spent 30 years making it surprisingly simple to get exactly what your home needs. 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